On a caravan trip recently, we had an ant invasion. To stop it, I laid down liquid ant killer around a circular vent hole in the floor of the caravan, where they seemed to be coming in.

As I laid the liquid down, the ants immediately headed for it, drank/ate it and, after about 5 minutes, the majority of them were unmoving (dead, asleep?). There were about 100 bodies there - as it was evening, I decided to leave them there and clear them away in the morning.

But when I woke in the morning, all the bodies were gone!! How did that happen? And why?

It seems to suggest that other ants arrived, saw their dead 'comrades', waded through the ant killer to get them and then dragged the bodies back through the liquid to their nest - is that possible? But why?

As an aside, the ants also seemed to learn that the liquid was poisonous as we didn't see another ant for 2 weeks.

I recently heard that when a Bull ant is cut in half, each half fights each other. The head bites the tail and the tail stings the head, for up to 30 minutes, until one of the halves dies. Can anyone explain this phenomenon?

The photo shows a green sweet that has been discovered by ants on a paved path in my garden. The sweet had been dropped several hours before, and had attracted the interest of an ant colony which was carrying it away. But the pattern of the surrounding plant debris is a mystery. What accounts for its arrangement around the candy?

Roy Levian, Lexington, Massachusetts, US

This photo shows a green sweet that has been discovered by ants on a paved path in my garden. The sweet had been dropped several hours before, and had attracted the interest of an ant colony which was carrying it away. But the pattern of the surrounding plant debris is a mystery. What accounts for its arrangement around the candy?

Roy Levian, Lexington, Massachusetts, US

After microwaving a plate of food for two minutes, when I removed the plate, I noticed a living, normal and healthy ant on the bottom of the plate.  Assuming I did not pick up the ant post microwaving -- something I am almost certain I did not -- how is it possible for an ant to survive being microwaved for two minutes?  Chiton exoskeleton?  Weird surface area effect?  Ants are from space a la Fred Hoyle? ;)

Any help is appreciated.

It must something to do with humidity, but why?